Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-02-11
Printers Errors

Al Glass, the nanipulators n tYpo
may ruthfully be called the best land
wors, abused. men ID The world. and
withc ut sufficient reason. Very few
outside Of the trade know The Difficult
ties under which they labor on have
even faint conception Of the skill,
care and patience required. Absolute
correctness is q prime essential to secure
public approb baton. and how very little
is done 10 the way Of assistance. Copy.
properly prepared IS q great desidera-s
tunr and rarely received. That which
is called "good" is often the reverse. IL
may be fair to the eye and yet blind to
the sense, The patron does not know
exactly what he needs. If he has any
ideas upon the subject they may be per-
verified ones, and the little smattering
he has Of the art tends to lead him
astray and demand impossibilities. His
Judgment has not been trained in
the matter of letters. He knows moth
ing of Justification" except that he
believes he. has: it in the largest sense
to give the printer Particular fits" when
an error is found. Why six line plea.
and nonpareil cannot be- made to chime
like notes of music is beyond his ideas,
Of eternal fitness of inanimate matte2.
According to his views, it is the most
simple Of undertakings to- set, ma up
and work off l00'pages, more or less,
in the most unreasonably short space Of
time. Before pouring out the walls OF
their wrath upon the head of the printer;
it might be we'll for men to pause and
consider how much he is to- blame.
Somewhere in our desultory reading we
have met with the. statement that any
old piece Of Mosaic work containing q,
few hundred pieces Is, exalted TO- the
skies and pronounced wonderful It
required patience, no doubt, probably
taste and study, but (ca frying out the
drift of the article read)' how very little
in comparison to the tens and hundreds
lof thousands Of still more slender and
minute particles the printer is, required
to handle to make up'paper or book.
Take solid page of the Cabinet: as an
example. 1t contains some 81 900 "emss
or about 81 900 letters. This, is greatly
more than any Mosaic known. And they
had to be placed without any chiseling or
sand papering, as could be done in the
delicate work Of table, chair or picture.
Taking this as basis, calculation is
easy as to the amount of type compos-
itor handles during his hours of daily
labor in stributing and setting. Easy
it is also to conceive how. such little
fragments of metal will slip out of
place, how a. letter or space may be
dropped, word spelled incorrectly, a
point be wrong, how errors will creep
in despite all care-and the generous
public be outraged at the "gross care
lessness and stupidity of the printer"
Errors do occur, we must admit, but
they are fabulously uncommon when
compared to chances of their being
made, and books and papers are monu-
ments to the correctness Of the craft,
their swiftness and certainty of touch,
education and never ceasjng vigilance.
We write not thus for the craft. They
practically know the truth of our words.
But we do write for the multitude of
outsiders, and with the hope that this
illustration eve have given may open
their eyes to the great injustice done
to those who, with their noses in the
space box" toll away their lives for the
benefit the world at large. Rounds:
Printers Cabinet.